[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    [patch] faster Makefile.in -> Makefile translation
From:       Michael Matz <matz () ifh ! de>
Date:       2000-04-01 16:37:53
[Download RAW message or body]


Hi (esp. coolo, David and people interested in configure),

as everybody knows, the most time in configure-ing a package is taken by
the process to substitute all @xx@ variables from Makefile.in into the
actual values in Makefile. Unfortunately this affects not only developers,
but also users which compile from source (or are using snapshots).
(I'm talking about 'creating <path>/Makefile')

Last night I had finally enough, and decided to rewrite the main loop from
config.status in perl. After some battling with autoconf there was a
result, which you can find in the attached patch.

Timings for one config.status run (wich recreates all Makefiles, and is
also run by configure):
package        old config.status    new config.status
kdelibs        2m59.425s            0m12.920s
kdebase        6m17.323s            0m21.872s
kdemultimedia  1m6.419s             0m4.454s
kdegraphics    1m2.160s             0m3.785s

So it's nearly 18 times (!) as fast.
Of course I had tested the generated Makefiles, if they differ with this
new method. No differences. I've tried it with srcdir!=blddir. The
create_makefile script also works with the new method (and is real fast
now ;).

To try it, just apply the patch into kde-common. Then normally 
'make -f Makefile.cvs' . There is a new configure switch
(--enable-fast-perl), which activetes the new behaviour.

If this switch is not given, the old method is invoked. Beware, that you
must have perl in PATH by the time you run configure or config.status, and
that .../admin/config.pl is accessible, if you want use this switch.
This would also have to be distributed with snapshots and sources.

To integrate the script into the configure mechanism I had to hack two
methods from autoconf (AC_OUTPUT and AC_OUTPUT_FILES, now called
KDE_OUTxxx). I used autoconf 2.13 as base. I'm interested if there are any
problems with other autoconf versions. Basically instead of using
AC_OUTPUT in configure.in you now use KDE_OUTPUT. I've changed
Makefile.common to generate configure.in this way. The problem is, that
automake depends on AC_OUTPUT to find the Makefile.am's, so right now
Makefile.common generates AC_OUTPUT, and just before autoconf is called it
replaces it with KDE_OUTPUT. (Hacky, I know. But one can't simply redefine
autoconf methods, if the frozen version of autoconf is used, which is the
case most times).


Ciao,
Michael.

["kde-comm.diff.gz" (APPLICATION/x-gunzip)]

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]